To be Fair, DcDirect only made characters they had already made in the comic book style. between the heroes and the villains, they only made 6 sets or 12 characters total. Part of the appeal of the SF 3 pack will be the fact that two of these characters have never been made in plastic before.

To be Fair, DcDirect only made characters they had already made in the comic book style. between the heroes and the villains, they only made 6 sets or 12 characters total. Part of the appeal of the SF 3 pack will be the fact that two of these characters have never been made in plastic before.

The "ethnic Super Friends" are just plain offensive and need to go away.

Mike(Apache Chief. Yeah. That's not the least bit insulting.)

I never understand why people can get so offended. Yes, I realize Apache Chief isn't the best name in the world and that if no one said anything about stuff like this it would probably get worse but at the same time why not just let it roll off your back? In the big scheme of things, does it really matter? I think people take things too personal and too far a lot of the time.

And this is not directed at you, just my general opinion on the matter.

I never understand why people can get so offended. Yes, I realize Apache Chief isn't the best name in the world and that if no one said anything about stuff like this it would probably get worse but at the same time why not just let it roll off your back? In the big scheme of things, does it really matter? I think people take things too personal and too far a lot of the time.

And this is not directed at you, just my general opinion on the matter.

For myself, I'm not offended by Apache Chief. But if I were a native American, I probably would be. I live about five miles from an Indian reservation and I have never once heard any of the people who live there use the word "kemosabe". They don't live in teepees. They don't dress in buckskins. They don't stick their ears on the ground to see if they can hear approaching horses. And they all speak perfect english.

I just don't get why in those days, and even today a lot of the time a character's ethnicity was their identity. They couldn't be a hero who also happened to be Asian, Black, Native, Hispanic, Vulcan, whatever....

Case in point, Black Lightning. Cool character, but I'm still amazed that name ever made it to print. He has electricity based powers, so Lightning makes sense. Black? Did they think people wouldn't notice? His face is exposed, the secret's out. It could be a matter of pride, but I wouldn't go around calling myself White Lightning. He's a hero first, that's all that should matter.

_________________If there are 2 villains and 20 heroes, what do the heroes do all day? Talk about their prostate problems?

I think there was a story in comics with Black Lightning where he did explain his code name. Also, I believe he had the code name before he even got electricity powers. He was hand to hand trying to clean the streets.

Got this from wikipedia...

"Pierce adopts the costumed identity "Black Lightning". Years later, he would tell fellow African American superhero Mister Terrific that he chose the name Black Lightning because he "was the only one of us around" at the time, and he "wanted to make sure everyone knew who they were dealing with"

I'm pretty sure this is a retcon though, with the current 'Black Lightning Year One' mini, will someone correct me if I'm wrong but Black Lightning got the powers after the code name right?

_________________JLU Forever! And is MOTUC EVER getting around to Ram Man?

I think there was a story in comics with Black Lightning where he did explain his code name. Also, I believe he had the code name before he even got electricity powers. He was hand to hand trying to clean the streets.

Got this from wikipedia...

"Pierce adopts the costumed identity "Black Lightning". Years later, he would tell fellow African American superhero Mister Terrific that he chose the name Black Lightning because he "was the only one of us around" at the time, and he "wanted to make sure everyone knew who they were dealing with"

I'm pretty sure this is a retcon though, with the current 'Black Lightning Year One' mini, will someone correct me if I'm wrong but Black Lightning got the powers after the code name right?

Makes sense, although I still think that's a bit strange as the only person who might have missed that he's black is Dr. Mid-Nite.

_________________If there are 2 villains and 20 heroes, what do the heroes do all day? Talk about their prostate problems?

I really liked what Joe Kelly did a few years back in the previous JLA comic, roughly #65 thru #90, where he introduced Manitou Raven and made him a tribute character to Apache Chief. Manitou Raven was basically an American Indian from the ancient past who was a sorcerer. At one point he uses his sorcery to become a 50 foot giant, exclaiming "Inekchuk". Too bad he's currently either a spirit or dead in the DCU.

For myself, I'm not offended by Apache Chief. But if I were a native American, I probably would be. I live about five miles from an Indian reservation and I have never once heard any of the people who live there use the word "kemosabe". They don't live in teepees. They don't dress in buckskins. They don't stick their ears on the ground to see if they can hear approaching horses. And they all speak perfect english.

Apache Chief is a joke.

Mike(A really bad joke.)

Yeah, I'm so sure when they created all the characters they were all racists and deliberately named them as such because of this. Please. It's a silly name of a cartoon character. who cares? As a white person they could have named a guy Cracker Jim and I would have not been so you know what hurt about it.

Also, there are Indians still living in teepees just as there are white people still living in log cabins. People need to get a hug from thier mom's more often and stop worrying about stupid stuff like this.

For myself, I'm not offended by Apache Chief. But if I were a native American, I probably would be. I live about five miles from an Indian reservation and I have never once heard any of the people who live there use the word "kemosabe". They don't live in teepees. They don't dress in buckskins. They don't stick their ears on the ground to see if they can hear approaching horses. And they all speak perfect english.

Apache Chief is a joke.

Mike(A really bad joke.)

I am a Native American (Omaha tribe) and Apache Chief doesn't offend me. However, my tribe's reservation must be different than the one you live near because during powwows and ceremonies (and sometimes just for everyday wear), people DO wear buffalo and buckskins. Teepees are used for ceremonies and sometimes people camp in them at powwows, though I doubt anyone that doesn't want to live in one is forced to live in one. None of us speak perfect English, though that seems to be the norm for most people here in the States. At least the character Apache Chief actually looks Apache instead of looking like a plains Indian, which is how Indians usually look in movies/tv/cartoons. I'm looking forward to having him because I grew up on Superfriends. I may even buy a couple of extras to give to Apache friends, or possibly to have customized into an Omaha plains Indian.
I dunno. If he was called Captain Redskin, and grew into a giant after drinking booze then I'd be offended. But he was a decent minor character that I remember enjoying when I was young. I'm looking forward to getting him and the others.

I never understand why people can get so offended. Yes, I realize Apache Chief isn't the best name in the world and that if no one said anything about stuff like this it would probably get worse but at the same time why not just let it roll off your back? In the big scheme of things, does it really matter? I think people take things too personal and too far a lot of the time.

It matters a lot more to fans who only see characters that look like them depicted as walking stereotypes.

I think the Super Friends characters were all created and portrayed as good faith efforts to diversify the team, but some aspects could certainly have been handled better. To be fair, though, this was one of the first attempts to do something like that with something as big as a Saturday morning cartoon featuring Batman and Superman's team of superheroes. Things were a lot worse in the world of comic books, and there's still a lot of room for improvement.

Valo487 wrote:

Case in point, Black Lightning. Cool character, but I'm still amazed that name ever made it to print. He has electricity based powers, so Lightning makes sense. Black? Did they think people wouldn't notice? His face is exposed, the secret's out. It could be a matter of pride, but I wouldn't go around calling myself White Lightning. He's a hero first, that's all that should matter.

It absolutely was a matter of pride, according to the man who created - and named - the character. Calling yourself "White Lightning" as a matter of "pride" wouldn't exactly be the same kind of thing, considering everything that had been happening for the last couple of decades leading up to Pierce's creation. Should the fact that Jackie Robinson was a baseball player have been all that mattered? In a perfect world, absolutely, but not in the one where he lived.

[quote="Tony Isabella"]Jefferson Pierce is a reluctant hero, always has been. He became Black Lightning because his sense of morality, his sense of social responsibility, wouldnâ€™t allow him to withhold his gifts, all his gifts, from his community. He comes from a background that tells him that, if you can help, you must help. Heâ€™s a devout Christian who puts his belief into deeds.

His mission is just that: to help people. Heâ€™s not a world-saver.

Heâ€™s the hero who lives down the street, the guy you hope your own kids grow up to be like. He chose the name â€œBlack Lightningâ€

It matters a lot more to fans who only see characters that look like them depicted as walking stereotypes.

Well you don't need to explain that to a Texan haha. Hollywood can't help but make us all cowboys with cattle. I guess my point was that I think people over react to these things and sometimes you should just let it go.

I can understand how some people would take offense, but I don't. At the same time, I try to avoid using those types of derogatory statements. Because some people do, and it's not for me to judge that they shouldn't. They may have a perfectly valid reason for taking offense that we don't know about.

Although often it's just because they're too touchy, but that's a whole other conversation.

Personally, I'm a dyed-in-the-wool proponent of diversity in comic books, animation, and action figure lines. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it in a thread about the poll, but suffice it to say that it's one of my issues with some of the companies who market their wares to geeks.